Stoke City's Robert Huth, left, and West Bromwich Albion's Shane Long battle for the ball at The Hawthorns. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

In the end there was an air of inevitably about the outcome. Having won on their previous three Premier League visits here without conceding a goal, Stoke City repeated the trick here, courtesy of an opportunist strike from the substitute Dean Whitehead, to extend their own good run and leave West Bromwich Albion fans wondering whether their bubble has burst. "We always beat West Brom" chanted the travelling supporters, after witnessing their first away win in 17 attempts, dating back to the visit to Blackburn in January.

On an afternoon when the entertainment level was as low as the temperature, Albion huffed and puffed and probably deserved a point on the balance of play, but this was a flat performance from Steve Clarke's team, who looked short of ideas going forward and rarely threatened. Clarke had tried to freshen things up by making six changes in the wake of the disappointing performance at Swansea City on Wednesday night but the end result was the same, as Albion slipped to a second defeat in four days. Not that falling to fifth place in the table represents a crisis.

Stoke's threat was sporadic but they were ruthless in punishing some poor Albion defending in the 75th minute. Jonas Olsson should have headed Michael Kightly's flighted pass back to Boaz Myhill but instead chose to nod the ball towards the touchline, where he became involved in a tussle with Kenwyne Jones.

The Albion captain succeeded only in nudging the ball to Kightly, who accepted the invitation to dart into the penalty area, after Goran Popov retreated, and picked out Whitehead with a low centre that the midfielder swept past Myhill for his first Premier League goal in almost three years.

"We lost two games earlier in the season and bounced back with four wins. I'm not saying we're going to do that again but we're certainly going to bounce back," said Clarke, who refused to blame Olsson for his part in the goal.

"We're a good team, we've worked hard to be in a good place with a good points total. And I've just told the lads that we've got nothing to be down about. We should be positive going into the rest of the month. Certainly their head coach is positive."

Albion could have been forgiven for thinking beforehand that Stoke were not ideal opponents. As well as having something of a hex over them – Albion have recorded two victories in their past 30 league meetings – Tony Pulis's side arrived full of confidence. This latest success means that they have picked up 13 points from a possible 15, including three victories in eight days, to sit ninth, above Arsenal in the Premier League table.

For Pulis, though, it was a first away win of the season that gave him most satisfaction.

"Obviously the monkey is off our back," the Stoke manager said. "We've had four draws away from home this season and we could easily have won a couple of them and it just hasn't fallen for us.

"It is always nice to get the first win and I'm really pleased. We've watched West Brom and they're one of best counterattacking teams in the Premier League this year.

"If you get exposed and leave yourself open in certain areas, they play through the lines better and quicker than most teams. One thing we wanted is to make sure that we never got stretched and we did that well."

That much was true. The only notable save Asmir Begovic made in the first half was when Steven Reid tried his luck with a free-kick from close to the halfway line.

Although Clarke introduced Peter Odemwingie and Romelu Lukaku in the second half to liven things up, it was not until the 82nd minute, when Graham Dorrans drilled a left-foot shot from the edge of the area that Begovic beat away, that the Stoke goal was seriously under threat.